Saunders, Audrey (1962–), was the operating partner behind New York’s seminal cocktail lounge, Pegu Club, on West Houston Street. From the day that its doors opened in the summer of 2005 the bar was celebrated as a center for the emerging “craft cocktail” movement. See craft cocktail. The bar, which closed in 2020, was known for its meticulously prepared specialty cocktails and attentive service. Saunders pioneered the practice of tabletop cocktail condiments, including a selection of small bottles holding simple syrup, fresh juice, and bitters, which allow the guests to add a personal touch to their cocktails.
Saunders trained many of today’s top bartenders at Pegu Club, some of whom have opened their own celebrated bars. Standouts among the bar’s alumni are Jim Meehan, who started the James Beard award-winning Please Don’t Tell (PDT), and Phil Ward, who started tequila-and-mezcal-centric bar Mayahuel.
Saunders came late to the beverage business, leaving the corporate cleaning business that she cofounded, Contract Services of America, to become a bartender at the Waterfront Alehouse in Brooklyn. She was consumed by the world of bars and restaurants and worked tirelessly to train herself in the industry. It was in this period that Saunders met Dale DeGroff, the head bartender at New York’s iconic Rainbow Room. See DeGroff, Dale. As he recalls,
I was moonlighting as a teacher in the NYU Continuing Education program in the hotel, restaurant, and beverage department. The class was called the Business of the Bar, and I shared the allotted four hours with a financial controller from the B. E. Rock Company, the firm that operated the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center, which employed us both.
Saunders was so passionate about the bar world that she approached me after the class and offered to work for free to learn about high-end beverage service. I managed a union shop at the Rainbow, and that wasn’t an option. The B. E. Rock Company was an early co-sponsor of the City Meals on Wheels Initiative, and as a group we worked closely with the mayor and other restaurateurs on events to promote the charity as well as events to promote tourism in the city. I needed help—none of the participants are paid, so it wasn’t easy to find willing bar staff—I turned to Saunders. She worked regularly on charity events with me for a couple years. Then in 1999, she worked for chef Waldy Malouf as lead bartender at the acclaimed Beacon Restaurant on West Fifty-Sixth Street. After two years there, she took a management position at Tonic, a bar and restaurant in the Chelsea. Tonic closed right after the tragedy of 9/11.
Today Saunders and her husband, Robert Hess, a former Microsoft project manager and a cocktail pioneer in his own right, are putting finishing touches on the Ravenwood Beverage Institute on their property in rural Washington. See Hess, Robert. The institute will be a “retreat” of sorts for talented men and women who are blazing a trail in the new craft bar movement.
See also Pegu Club.
“Mixologist Audrey Saunders of Pegu Club-Biography.” Star Chefs, April 2012. https://www.starchefs.com/cook/chefs/bio/audrey-saunders (accessed May 25, 2021).
Simonson, Robert. “Audrey Saunders and Robert Hess.” New York Times, July 29, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/fashion/weddings/audrey-saunders-and-robert-hess-vows.html (accessed May 25, 2021).
Wells, Pete. “Mixing It Up with a Cocktail Purist.” Food and Wine, March 31, 2015. http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/mixing-it-up-with-a-cocktail-purist (accessed May 25, 2021).
By: Dale DeGroff and David Wondrich
Audrey Saunders behind the bar at Pegu Club in New York. Source: Courtesy of Audrey Saunders.